Isaiah 3:4

Douay-Rheims Bible

And I will give children to be their princes, and the effeminate shall rule over them.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
“I will make youths their leaders,and unstable rulers will govern them.”

Hebrew Names Version
I will give boys to be their princes, And children shall rule over them.

King James Version
And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.

English Standard Version
And I will make boys their princes, and infants shall rule over them.

New American Standard Bible
And I will make mere boys their leaders, And mischievous children will rule over them,

New Century Version
The Lord says, "I will cause young boys to be your leaders, and foolish children will rule over you.

Amplified Bible
And I will make mere boys their princes, And capricious (impulsive, unpredictable) children will rule over them.

World English Bible
I will give boys to be their princes, And children shall rule over them.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And I will appoint children to bee their princes, and babes shall rule ouer them.

Legacy Standard Bible
And I will make young men their princes,And capricious children will rule over them,

Berean Standard Bible
"I will make mere lads their leaders, and children will rule over them."

Contemporary English Version
He will let children and babies become your rulers.

Complete Jewish Bible
I will put children in authority; capriciousness will govern them.

Darby Translation
And I will appoint youths as their princes, and children shall rule over them.

Easy-to-Read Version
He says, "I will put young boys in charge of you. They will be your leaders.

George Lamsa Translation
And I will appoint young men to be their princes, and mockers shall rule over them.

Good News Translation
The Lord will let the people be governed by immature boys.

Lexham English Bible
And I will make boys their princes, and children shall rule over them.

Literal Translation
And I will give young boys to be their rulers, and caprices shall rule over them.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And I shal geue you children to be youre prynces (saieth the LORDE) and babes shall haue the rule of you.

American Standard Version
And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.

Bible in Basic English
And I will make children their chiefs, and foolish ones will have rule over them.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.

King James Version (1611)
And I will giue children to bee their Princes, and babes shall rule ouer them.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And I shall geue children to be their princes, and babes shall rule ouer them.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And I will make youths their princes, and mockers shall have dominion over them.

English Revised Version
And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And Y schal yyue children the princes of hem, and men of wymmens condiciouns schulen be lordis of hem.

Update Bible Version
And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.

Webster's Bible Translation
And I will give children [to be] their princes, and babes shall rule over them.

New English Translation
The Lord says, "I will make youths their officials; malicious young men will rule over them.

New King James Version
"I will give children to be their princes, And babes shall rule over them.

New Living Translation
I will make boys their leaders, and toddlers their rulers.

New Life Bible
I will make boys their rulers. Foolish children will rule over them.

New Revised Standard
And I will make boys their princes, and babes shall rule over them.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And I will appoint boys to be their princes, - And, petulant children, shall rule over them,

Revised Standard Version
And I will make boys their princes, and babes shall rule over them.

Young's Literal Translation
And I have made youths their heads, And sucklings rule over them.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
And I will make mere lads their princes, And capricious children will rule over them,

Contextual Overview

¹ For behold the sovereign Lord of hosts shall take away from Jerusalem, and from Juda the valiant and the strong, the whole strength of bread, and the whole strength of water. ² The strong man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet and the cunning man, and the ancient. ³ The captain over fifty, and the honourable in countenance, and the counsellor, and the architect, and the skilful in eloquent speech. ⁴ And I will give children to be their princes, and the effeminate shall rule over them. ⁵ And the people shall rush one upon another, and every man against his neighbour: the child shall make a tumult against the ancient, and the base against the honourable. ⁶ For a man shall take hold of his brother, one of the house of his father, saying: Thou hast a garment, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand. ⁷ In that day he shall answer, saying: I am no healer, and in my house there is no bread, nor clothing: make me not ruler of the people. ⁸ For Jerusalem is ruined, and Juda is fallen: because their tongue, and their devices are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his majesty.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

children: 1 Kings 3:7-9, 2 Chronicles 33:1, 2 Chronicles 34:1, 2 Chronicles 36:2, 2 Chronicles 36:5, 2 Chronicles 36:9, 2 Chronicles 36:11, Ecclesiastes 10:16

Reciprocal: 2 Kings 22:1 - eight years old 2 Chronicles 13:7 - young Proverbs 30:22 - a servant Isaiah 3:12 - children Isaiah 51:18 - none Jeremiah 52:3 - through

Cross-References

Genesis 3:13
And the Lord God said to the woman: Why hast thou done this? And she answered: The serpent deceived me, and I did eat.

Deuteronomy 29:19
And when he shall hear the words of this oath, he should bless himself in his heart saying: I shall have peace, and will walk on in the naughtiness of my heart: and the drunken may consume the thirsty,

2 Kings 1:4
Wherefore, thus saith the Lord: From the bed, on which thou art gone up, thou shalt not come down, but thou shalt surely die. And Elias went away.

2 Kings 1:6
But they answered him: A man met us, and said to us: Go, and return to the king, that sent you, and you shall say to him: Thus saith the Lord: Is it because there was no God in Israel, that thou sendest to Beelzebub, the god of Accaron? Therefore thou shalt not come down from the bed, on which thou art gone up, but thou shalt surely die.

2 Kings 1:16
And said to him: Thus saith the Lord: Because thou hast sent messengers to consult Beelzebub, the god of Accaron, as though there were not a God in Israel, of whom thou mightest inquire the word; therefore, from the bed on which thou art gone up, thou shalt not come down, but thou shalt surely die.

2 Kings 8:10
And Eliseus said to him: Go tell him: Thou shalt recover: but the Lord hath shewed me that he shall surely die.

Psalms 10:11
(9-32) For he hath said in his heart: God hath forgotten, he hath turned away his face, not to see to the end.

2 Corinthians 2:11
That we be not overreached by Satan. For we are not ignorant of his devices.

2 Corinthians 11:3
But I fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted and fall from the simplicity that is in Christ.

1 Timothy 2:14
And Adam was not seduced; but the woman, being seduced, was in the transgression.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And I will give children [to be] their princes,.... Either in age, or in understanding, who are really so, or act like such; and in either sense, when this is the case, it is an unhappiness to a nation, Ecclesiastes 10:16:

and babes shall rule over them; which is the same as before. The Targum is,

"the weak shall rule over them;''

such who are weak in their intellectuals, or are of mean pusillanimous spirits, "effeminate", as the Vulgate Latin version renders it; and so as "children" are opposed to the "ancient", that should be taken away, these are opposed to "men of might" and courage, who would now be wanting: or "men of illusions", as in the margin; such as were subtle as foxes, and should deceive them, and impose upon them, and were audacious and impudent, and would mock at them, and despise them. So Jarchi and Abarbinel; and according to this sense of the word the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, render it, "mockers shall rule over them".

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And I will give children - Not children in respect to age so much as in regard to talent for governing. I will commit the land to the government of weak and imbecile princes. This would naturally occur when the wise and great were removed; compare Ecclesiastes 10:16 : ‘Wo to thee, O land, when thy king is a child;’ compare Isaiah 3:12.

And babes shall rule ... - That is, babes in experience and knowledge. This was fully accomplished in the succession of weak and wicked princes that succeeded Isaiah, until the time of Zedekiah, the last of them, when the temple was taken by Nebuchadnezzar. - “Lowth.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 3:4. I will give children to be their princes - "I will make boys their princes"] This also was fully accomplished in the succession of weak and wicked princes, from the death of Josiah to the destruction of the city and temple, and the taking of Zedekiah, the last of them, by Nebuchadnezzar.

Babes shall rule over them. — Dymennysche men schul lordschopen to hem. - Old MS. Bible.